Linking another thread on Universal Control to your post, @MitchWagner, so it’s all accessible in one place:
Getting adjusted to where the mouse is residing at any given moment has been something I’ve struggled with as well, but that seems to me to be just a function of living with a multi-display set-up. If only the mouse (and maybe the keyboard focus) could automagically go to the screen that I was directly looking at, all my troubles would be solved.
I find that I put my snack and coffee behind the iPad. Not perfectly convenient, but I have found that I am less prone to spilling my coffee with it in that position.